Big News!!!

Sorry it has taken so long for me to write this much anticipated post, but I was kinda hoping that I'd have a climax to this story a little sooner.

I've been making these little hair clips out of vintage scraps of material and buttons for quite a while now, occasionally mixing it up by using lace instead of fabric, and that is how I came by the idea to make my own fascinator for race day. The pile of clips has slowly been getting larger and larger, and as I don't often wear hair clips they have just been sitting in an old make up case in my wardrobe completely untouched this whole time. I've often thought about selling them, but then I have argued that the price of market stalls would outweigh my earnings and I don't have enough stock to make an impressive-looking stall anyway, but over the last few months while I have been on the pension and have had so much time on my hands, my craft projects have become more diverse and more frequent.

First off, I started sewing again.

Then, I started this blog.

Then, I started to crochet necklaces (I will be posting about this extremely soon, I promise)

Then, something amazing happened! A craft co-operative opened up a store in Evans Head, my hometown! The shop is called The Corner Store and it is filled with wonderful handmade goods. There are currently 12 members of the co-operative and my big news is...

I've joined it!

Freshly printed labels! (how exciting!)

I went to their monthly meeting the other day and sent samples of my work to the shop for them to look at before they evaluated whether or not I would be a valuable addition to their team and my products would fit in with the products already in the shop. I bribed them just a little bit with loaning them my peek-a-boo dolls to use as mannequins in the shop, and finally it has happened - my membership has been approved!

For me to be accepted into the co-op all the members had to approve me, with no objections. Most of these ladies are mature, sophisticated crafters who have been doing this for an extremely long time, and here I am - a nineteen year old who mucks around without patterns on her sewing machine knocking up things she hopes will fit someone. Needless to say, I was extremely nervous about this, and eager for them to make their decision!

Are there any craft co-ops where you live, and would you consider becoming a part of one? I think they are a great idea.

For the price of a small joining fee and 20% commission coming out of your sold products to run the shop (electricity, rent and insurance) you can have your products on display all the time, just waiting for customers to buy them! It certainly works out much better than paying for market stalls and market insurance, and you only have to volunteer one day a month at The Corner Store, rather than spending every Sunday at the markets!

 

 

 

Failure :(

So, over the last couple of days the phrase "bit the bullet" seems to have come to mind a little too often for my liking. I bit the bullet by telling you about the changes I was making before they actually happened, and now I have no possible way of making them happen and have wasted money on a domain name which I can't bloody use.

You see, I thought it would be simple to switch domain names, and in all likelihood, it probably is! However, I can't for the life of me figure out what to do. I followed all of google's instructions, waited the three hours my server told me to, and still I am coming up with the dreaded "error 13" every time I try to redirect my domain from blogger.

Oh well, it is clear I'm no IT chick now, isn't it? But that's okay because I am a craft chick and I have some great projects to show you over the next few days! Hang tight to see what I've been up to, and hear some very exciting news!

Changes! - Edited

So, if you are reading this more than 1 hour after I have written this post, you may have noticed something - I have bought my own, brand-new domain name!

In my opinion becauseisaidsew.blogspot.com was just not visible enough or original enough for me to use as my brand name and blog name for an extended period of time, and I thought it would be better to change it now (while I still have no followers and doubt that people actually read my posts) than later when it would cause a heap of confusion. Besides, I wanted to start printing off tags for the things I will be selling in the future and set up my etsy store!

I hope that I have done everything right for this to work out. If not, i'm sure I'll know soon enough!

What do you think of my new brand name "little foal" anyway? And what do you think of my logo?

I was trying to go for something simple and easy to remember. Think it works? Leave me a comment and let me know what you think of my new name and whether or not you think it suits me. I'd love to hear from you! :)

Edit: Having trouble with getting blogger to redirect to my new domain. I think I just wasted $15!
Changed my blogger url and now i'm guessing anyone who actually read my blog wont be able to find it :( Hopefully I can get this stuff sorted soon - may have to buy a new domain and start over! What a pain! Anyone got any tips for me? 

Farmhouse Glam and a touch Boho...

I just took the HomeGoods Stylescope photo quiz and it told me that my home decor style is farmhouse glam and a touch boho. What's farmhouse glam you ask?

Farmhouse Glam is the delicate, exquisite balance between beautiful femininity and rustic nonchalance. She's all about the discovery of unexpected sparkle amidst the less polished. She wears high heels and a denim jacket, a string of pearls and bare feet. And her home feels as special as it does comfortable.

Hmm, I like it!

Take the quick little quiz in a moment of boredom for your own style diagnosis, some quick tips and a new pinterest board to follow!

Race Day Recap

Hi Everyone!

So, Friday was the Ballina Cup - our local horse racing day, and as promised here are some photos of the outfit I wore, including the fascinator I made especially for the occassion:

Please excuse the awkward lack of back-drop for these photos but I got my lovely boyfriend, Jake, to take them while I was at his house and this is the best we could do right then (he is definitely not that keen on taking 376925345 shots of me until I am content I have a nice one, nor is he keen to scout a "nice backdrop" when we are about to leave for dinner and he's hungry!)

and some of my hair, which my lovely sister, Shoni, did for me in the car out the front of the shopping centre where she was about to see a movie:

It was super windy on Friday, and I knew I'd be spending all day holding down my dress, so I opted for an up-do to keep my hair out of my eyes. 

All in all it was a good day which could have been made even better if a) I was able to drink an alcoholic beverage or six, b) it wasn't so windy and c) I could find a bloody booky and place a bet! Oh well, I think the fascinator looked lovely and went with my outfit quite well and next time I know to make sure there are no family affairs I have to drive to afterwards and to wear a tight-fitting dress and bring a cardi! 

Spring Races!

Hi everyone!
For those of us in the southern hemisphere, spring is finally here, and that means racing season! I don't know what it is about horses, but they absolutely enthrall me and that is why I am super  excited to be going to the Ballina Cup on Friday! It will be my first ever race day experience and I am super keen to frock up and sip champagne by the track! (or at least pretend to sip champagne, I am  definitely not the biggest fan!)

It was sort of a last minute decision for me to be going on Friday, so I am just wearing a dress I already had (black, vintage inspired with pink roses and tulle underlay - perfect race day dress, no?) but I did knock up a quick home made fascinator to tizzy it up a little bit :)

Want to see?

Of course you do!

 

The big flower is black nylon lace gathered with a running stitch and the small flower is black cotton eyelet trim gathered with a running stitch. The cotton trim is quite stiff, and I think that helps it to keep the petal-like shape it has taken on. The button in the middle is a vintage one i stole out of mum's sewing box. It looks as though it has been hand beaded! The beads are glass and faux pearl. I added in the organza ribbon "petals" for extra dimension, although they aren't all that easy to see.

 

I originally was going to hand sew the whole thing together, but the weird shapes formed by all the different elements made that kind of hard - in the end I just hot-glued it all together, including the (upside down) alligator clip on the back.

 

 

 

 

 

This last picture is just to give you the idea of how big it ended up. Please excuse my lovely spewed on work shirt and messy hair! I'll do another post on Saturday to show you the complete outfit and tell you all about the races! :)

 

If you're also from the southern hemispere, do you plan on going to the races this spring? If you're not, tell me about race experiences you've had in the past or any fascinators you might have worn or made :)

My favourite sewing blogs!

Does anyone else hate sewing without their serger? I find it almost impossibe to operate without it and mine is simply not co-operating at the moment! The unfinished projects are piling up, and every single thing that I thought I would have finished by now to show you, is sitting limp and lifeless on the ping-pong table which I use as a cutting space. That is why I decided to compile a list of my favourite sewing blogs to show you. These blogs are simply amazing - they are where I draw the majority of my inspiration from and are jam-packed with good ideas! Well, I hope you like them as much as I do, and please forgive me for not having any new projects for you - I swear it's my serger's fault!

The Mother Huddle - This wonderful group of women follow an editorial calendar which corresponds to the days of the week - Make It Monday for example. They describe The Mother Huddle as being about sharing, and boy do they share some great things! From sewing projects, to kids crafts, to beauty and lifestyle posts, The Mother Huddle has it all! They also post some great tutorials for DIY projects and sewing - very detailed and easy to follow!

 Girl. Inspired. - Stef does soooo many great projects, mostly centred around her kids and is such a great writer! Everything she makes is beautiful and she photographs it all so well! She describes her                  blog as "a little collection of the things that make [her] happy" and I can honestly say that her posts make me happy too!

Sewing In No Mans Land - The effort which Kelly goes to when styling the photos for her blog will absolutely amaze you! She is a wonderful photographer as well as a great seamstress/crafter and looking at her blog is an absolute treat!

Little Pink Monster - Natasha at Little Pink Monster has such a relaxed and easy-going blogging vibe that it's quite easy to get wrapped up in her life as you read! Her sense of humour shows in her posts and makes reading her blog extremely enjoyable, and her crafts (again mostly things for her kids) are great!

Cotton and Curls - I can't even begin to explain why I love this blog - the fashion, the refashions, the endless great ideas? I don't know, but I love it and you should love it too! Also, I have no idea what the blogger's name is but she is super beautiful! She looks great in all the things she makes, i'll be stoked if I look half as great in the finished product when I get around to doing some of her projects!

Well, there you go - my favourite sewing blogs! I am sure i will find many more in time to come that deserve a place on this list, but for now, five seems like a nice, succinct number and I'm off to go clubbing with some friends :)

Fat Quarter Bundle and Package-y Goodness!

I love recieving packages in the mail from online shopping! It really does make you feel like it's Christmas, doesn't it? So you can imagine how stoked I was when this gorgeous fat quarter bundle showed up on my doorstep on Friday!

I absolutely love the blue and green colour scheme of this little bundle which I purchased from Always Knitting and Sewing on Ebay. They had great customer service, the parcel was sent quickly and the fabric has turned out to be exactly as described and pictured.

I'm thinking that a fat quarter pillowcase dress is in order to make good use of this co-ordinate-y goodness! What would I do without all the great ideas from The Mother Huddle? Seriously. My only problem now will be selling the creation this bundle of joy will go into - so hard to say goodbye to beautiful things, right?

Finally! A finished project!

Are you proud, guys? I finally have something worthy to show you, and it's super cute too!

Introducing my cap-sleeved peasant dress and diaper cover set...

It's made to fit a baby about size 12mo, however I made the dress a little bit short so that the bottom of the diaper cover would peek out from underneath. It was my first attempt at a diaper cover and second attempt at a cap sleeved peasant dress (remember my problems, problems, problems post?) and i'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Hopefully the set will be available on Etsy soon, although I haven't set up my shop yet and still want to tweak the diaper cover a little bit (wider band of elastic at the top, little decoration somewhere, maybe a frill?) before I sell it. 

The dress was made without a pattern - all I had were measurements of fabric for a pillowcase dress in this size, which I got off the sizing chart at The Mother Huddle. I learnt how to do the sleeves after stumbling across this post on a long sleeve peasant dress at The Trendy Treehouse after much google searching for good tutorials. Tara gives really clear and simple instructions on how to make your own peasant dress - all I had to do was guesstimate the size of the sleeves I wanted and voila! 

I had quite a bit of trouble with the diaper cover, especially with the casing for the elastic around the legs. No one ever told me how hard it is to sew around a curve like that! Eventually, I did get there though, even if my first diaper cover turned out the size for a newborn rather than a 12mo baby! Safe to say I had to alter the pattern I used and go again, but in my frustration I think the second, larger diaper cover (which would actually cover a diaper) didn't turn out as neat as the small one! :(

Small Pair (bad lighting, sorry!)

Large pair

Oh well, I might put it up for sale on Etsy by itself as well as size 3mo or as a cute little no nappy pair of swimmer bottoms!

I love the pretty purple colour of the fabric against the vibrant spring greens of the ivy bush and grass in my garden!

I originally finished the dress and diaper cover on Wednesday, but the dress seemed too plain without any trim or embellishment on it. So glad I stumbled across this beautiful purple rose trim and the purple pearl buttons in Lincraft to pretty it up a little! The colours match perfectly in my opinion. This close-up really shows the girly, prettiness of the fabric with its embroidered eyelets!

I would love to do a tutorial on how to make the diaper cover, and took plenty of photos along the way, but before I do I will have to get it up to my own high standards! Oh well, back to the sewing machine I go!